1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices used to load, secure and transport motorized personal transportation vehicles, commonly called "carts" or "scooters". These vehicles typically are used by physically challenged individuals and others with impaired personal mobility, such as elderly individuals. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus intended to be mounted to the outside of a motor vehicle and designed to sense automatically whether a scooter is present on the lift platform of the device. If a scooter is present, the apparatus raises the vehicle and secures it on the platform. If no such vehicle is present, then the lift platform is stored in a secured position.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, extravehicular hoists have required the operator to position the cargo on the platform, secure the cargo, raise the platform, and finally lock the platform in its raised loaded position. Similarly, lowering the loaded platform has required reversing these steps. Frequently, each of these steps had to be performed manually by the operator. If the operator failed to secure the cargo properly, the cargo could fall off the platform during storage or transportation, thereby damaging the cargo and/or the vehicle to which the hoist was mounted.
Additionally, when the hoist was not in use to carry cargo, the hoist would have to be raised and folded into an unloaded storage position, if it could be folded at all. This again resulted in the manual performance of additional steps by the operator to prepare the hoist for storage and/or transport.
The problems encountered with the above-described operation of a hoist were exacerbated by the fact that the person who had to perform these various steps often was a physically challenged individual or elderly individual who did not possess the strength and/or dexterity to perform the various steps properly. Such individuals found it virtually impossible to accomplish loading and unloading of cargo, such as scooters weighing in excess of 100 pounds, without assistance from another person.
A hoist device which permits an individual, especially one of the aforementioned physically challenged or elderly persons, to load, raise, secure and transport a scooter or other cargo by operating a single, simple control mechanism that does not require significant strength or dexterity and overcomes the shortcomings of earlier systems would represent a significant advancement in the art.